Have you ever been frustrated with your travel bag? Thought, "hey, you know what? I could do better than this"? Well that’s exactly what Jeremy Cohen and Fred Perrotta were thinking somewhere in the middle of their extended trip through Europe. At the end of the trip they decided to take matters into their own hands and founded Tortuga Backpacks, which has now launched its flagship pack — the Tortuga Travel Backpack 45.

Tortuga Backpacks were kind enough to send along a Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 pack for me to test.

The pack consists of two main pockets, two side pockets and two small stash-style pockets on each of the hip belts. There’s also a hidden pocket inside the main pocket for stashing your valuables. The Tortuga 45 also includes something I consider a must have for travel packs — a zippered cover for the shoulder straps and hip belt.

I didn’t get a chance to test it on the road, but the pack had no trouble holding everything I brought with me on a recent trip around the world. The Tortuga 45 also meets the size requirements for carry on luggage on most airlines, so you’ll never need to check it unless you want to. The padded back and hip belt make the pack comfortable even when it’s loaded down, though do bear in mind the emphasis on "urban". I wouldn’t want to walk ten miles with this pack, but for walks from the train station to the hostel you’ll be just fine.

The pack is made of ballistic nylon, which means it’s tough enough to stand up to the rigors of city travel, though you probably wouldn’t want to hit the Appalachian trail with it. The nylon also means the Tortuga 45 is water resistant (though not water proof). I stuck it in the shower for 20 seconds or so and it managed to repel most of the water. Suffice to say if you’re caught in a brief rain shower you don’t need to worry.

Overall I liked the Tortuga Travel Backpack 45. It’s a bit on the boxy side compared to some packs, but it’s definitely functional. My only real gripe is the size of the logo. It’s big. Really big. But I have a known allergy to all branding/logos/labels (even for brands I like) so that may just be me.

If the logo doesn’t bother you and you’re in the market for a new pack, well, we’re giving away our review copy of the Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 (which, as noted, has been briefly exposed to water, and few walks around my neighborhood, but is otherwise brand new). Just leave a comment below telling us where you’re headed and how long you’re going for and I’ll randomly select one lucky winner next week.

Congrats to our winner Jim Johnson

The Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 is available from the Tortuga Backpack website and costs $250.

Having lived abroad for several years now, one travel investment that I can honestly say has been worth the expense many times over is my Amazon kindle. Sometimes travelers can get caught up in the myriad travel accessories there are out there on the market. Will these items make your trip better? Easier? Most seasoned backpackers swear by packing their bags with the absolute minimum, so as not to hamper their travels with the extra weight or worry for these items.

At first glance, a kindle can seem a bit expensive. The computerized books begin at US$114 with the newest version costing around $189 with all of the features. For some this is simply as unwanted expense. I would never have considered undertaking the expense, until I was living in the North of France and found that purchasing the occasional English novel or book amounted to a great expense. English literature is not incredibly plentiful in the region, and what books were in stock were shockingly expensive. If I wanted to read in English it was going to be costly.

Now, living in Asia where I do not have the option of reading in the local language, here too English books are more expensive. There are still English books available at the local bookstore, though they have a considerable mark up. Additionally, literature other than the popular novels can be virtually impossible.

Investing in a kindle not only allows me to read English novels more cheaply, it opens up the whole literary spectrum that is otherwise closed off to me where I am living – or only accessible at a ridiculous import price.
If you are planning to live abroad for any significant time, purchasing a kindle may be beneficial to you. If you are planning to be actively on the road, even for a long duration, a kindle might be an unnecessary expense. It may add extra weight and anxiety to your travels by adding an extra expensive appliance to worry about. Plus, it is always fun to pick up random paperbacks from local hostels or guest houses, leaving your finished paperback behind for other travelers who are passing through.

Vagabonders can be masters of packing methods, as well as knowing which items are absolutely necessary and which can be left behind. Recently, a Lifehacker article (Unusual Items Worth Packing on your Next Vacation) suggests some additional things to consider stashing in your bag before your next big trip.

Some of the items are somewhat old-hat, such as keeping a color copy of your passport in your bag, as well as duct tape. Others, like split key rings to use as locking devices, and baby powder to help get unwanted sand off your feet (see also: shower), may make you think about other uses for common items that are worth adding them to your packing list.

Do you have a tried-and-true unusual item that you always bring along? What is it, and how does it enhance your travel experience?

When I was a kid, I used to carry an agate arrowhead with me when I traveled with my family. I found it in an Idaho river, and my dad’s uncle offered me $20 for it. That was a lot of money for me then. I turned him down, thinking that if he was willing to offer me that much, it was surely special. As a talisman on my travels, it served as a reminder that any moment could be lucky.

The arrowhead sits on my desk now, accompanied by other travel mementos: a jade carving from Honduras, salt crystals from Peru and a Zulu coconut from New Orleans. In fact, the special items that go along on my travels are all practical. I miss having some small item packed in with the rest—something that’s just along for the ride and snaps my attention back to the moment. It’s time to take the arrowhead back on the road.

One friend travels with a charm on her bracelet that was blessed by the Dalai Lama. Another friend carries a turquoise-colored piece of beach glass. Many folks bring along photos of their kids or sweetheart. One adventure-minded pal will always wear a Maori greenstone necklace when he travels over water.

Do you have a travel talisman? What is it and where did you get it?

Does a roll of duct tape always find its way into your suitcase? Are you a jury-rig master? Unless you travel in a bubble where stores are always nearby, open and have absolutely everything you need, you’ve likely had to figure out how to repurpose something.

A recent Lifehacker article highlights the website’s most popular repurposing tricks of 2010. While some are a little over my non-geek head, others speak to my travel self, such as: turning a hoodie into a laptop bag, using nail polish to relieve an itchy mosquito bite, sealing plastic bags with old bottle caps and turning a film canister into a confetti bomb.

Fancy yourself a travel MacGyver? Share your best travel tricks in the comments section. Everyone, even the best at DIY, can use a new tip.

Chrome, probably best known for their bike messenger bags, have released two new bags that are worth considering for your next round-the-world trip. The folks at Chrome were kind enough to send Vagablogging the new Yalta bag to test out and pass along to one lucky reader.

The Yalta’s larger sibling, the Brigadier, is similar though slightly larger. The outer shell of both bags is made of Tarpaulin, a rugged, waterproof material that will stand up to the day-to-day abuse of travel and keep your things dry.

The Yalta also features a waterproof internal compartment for storing wet clothes, or, if you keep it dry, can offer added protection from the elements. There’s a zippered sleeve between the padded, back panel and the main compartment which provides a safe place to stash your laptop, guide book or other reasonably slim items (the sleeve had no trouble accommodating my 15 inch laptop and could probably even handle a 17 inch).

When it comes to organizing your gear the Yalta falls a little short of similarly priced bags. Organizing options are limited to a single main compartment. You can access the main compartment from the top, via a canvas roll top which cinches down with a seatbelt-style buckle that’s typical of Chrome bags.

There’s also a small zippered second pocket on the back of the pack, but the heavy material and small size of the pocket make it difficult to access when the pack is fully loaded.

If you’re the type that likes everything in its place, this is not the bag for you.

The back of the Yalta, showing small back compartment

15in laptop inside the Yalta laptop sleeve

The Good:

• Very tough, waterproof shell — It’s difficult to imagine the damage it would take to tear this bag and the fact that your things will stay dry in the downpours of Southeast Asia is a big plus for travelers.

• Nice padding, but still lightweight — The Yalta isn’t the lightest bag on the market (heavy-duty construction is never lightweight), but the padded back and shoulder straps distribute the load well. Even fully loaded the Yalta didn’t put excessive strain on my shoulders.

• Simple, single compartment — definitely not a bag for organization nerds, but some people like having just one big compartment.

The Not-so-good:

• Small back pocket — the pocket is too small and difficult to use when the main compartment is full. If the pocket were larger, with expandable sides for easier access, it would be more useful.

• Chrome buckles — Having broken many a custom buckle on the road, one thing I look for in pack is how hard it’s going to be to repair on the road. The chrome buckles on the pack’s shoulder straps look stylish, but you’re going to have trouble replacing them in the far corners of the world. That said, they appear to very sturdy, so it’s possible this would never be an issue.

As for holding all your gear, well that depends on how light you travel. The Yalta was definitely full when I loaded it down with what I typically bring on longer trips, but it did hold everything. If you think 1800 cu in is a bit small, check out the Brigadier, which is similar, but nearly twice the size. The Brigadier lacks the extra back padding of the Yalta, but it it offers a shoulder strap for carrying it like a duffle bag.

Overall I was impressed with the Yalta. It’s a durable, seemingly bomb-proof bag that’s plenty big enough for those who travel light. At $120 the Yalta isn’t the cheapest bag out there, but the high price seems somewhat justified given the quality the materials used (the Brigadier is $140).

Too expensive for your tastes? Well, you’re in luck, we’ve got one to give away.

Leave comment below describing your worst pack/travel gear disaster story and I’ll use Random.org to pick a winner.

A couple of weeks ago I offered signed copies of my two books as a holiday gift option; today I want to share a few other gift ideas. Each year publishers and gear companies send me far more books and equipment than I can review here — but a lot of what I get turns out to be quite useful and/or interesting. Here are some examples of recently released travel-themed items that I’ve enjoyed over the course of 2010:

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, by Peter Hessler.
2010 was a big year for books about international road and surface travel — and Hessler’s book about China’s emerging car culture was the best of them (Carl Hoffman’s The Lunatic Express runs a strong second). A longtime China correspondent for the New Yorker, Hessler has great reporting skills, an engaging and good-humored voice, and a keen eye for Chinese culture.

Tonoharu, by Lars Martinson.
As a fan of both expatriate memoirs and graphic novels (I recommended Guy Delisle’s graphic memoir Burma Chronicles in a Guardian roundup a couple of years ago), I enjoyed Martinson’s meticulously illustrated Tonoharu series, the second volume of which came out this year (part one was published in 2008). Tonoharu is a fictionalized look at the life of an American teacher-expat in Japan, and so many details of this story reminded me of my own experiences teaching in Korea in the late 1990s. Graphic novels are good at capturing the nuances of straightforward events — and in particular Martinson employs silences and lack of English dialogue to communicate the sense of isolation that comes with one’s first few weeks of working in an unfamiliar land.

Vida, by Patricia Engel.
Patty is a former student at my Paris writing workshop, and she certainly did us proud with this collection of interconnected short stories about a girl who is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. As critics have noted, Engel’s prose is spare, razor-sharp, and disarmingly funny — and Vida continues to land glowing reviews and year-end top-10 mentions from the likes of the New York Times.

Lonely Planet’s A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World, edited by Don George.
I’m not usually a fan of food-travel books, but this essay collection offers up a great menu of culinary adventures from places like Mongolia, Mexico, and Morocco. Contributors include Anthony Bourdain, Tim Cahill, Pico Iyer, Andrew Zimmern, Simon Winchester, Jan Morris, Elisabeth Eaves, David Downie, Jim Benning, Lawrence Millman, Amanda Jones, Laura Frasier, Larry Habegger, and Jeff Greenwald.

Chronicles of Old New York: Exploring Manhattan’s Landmark Neighborhoods, by James Roman.
I took my parents to New York this spring, and this book, which contains 25 intriguing tales from the history of the city, really captured my father’s imagination and brought the city to life for him (which in turn allowed me to see sides of the city I’d missed in all my previous visits). The book also features self-guided walking tours of nine historical NYC neighborhoods.

Travel shoes: Kuru Travel Shoes.
I’m such a fan of Blundstone boots that I can’t imagine vagabonding long-term in much else — but if boots aren’t your style, Kuru makes a sturdy and versatile travel shoe that performs well and looks good. I’ve mainly been wearing mine at home or on short trips to places like New York, and they’ve proven comfortable regardless of whether I’m doing chores on the prairie or pounding the pavement in the big city.

Travel shorts: Molecule Cargo Shorts.
I don’t own many pairs of shorts anymore, since I tend not to wear them much on the road (I find a well-designed pair of pants to be more versatile — even in hot weather — and a pair of surfing-style board-shorts can do double-duty in your pack). That said, I love the look and design of these cargo shorts. If you’re more of a shorts/sandals traveler than a pants/boots traveler, these are a great option (the biggest drawback being that they can be bulky if you’re packing them instead of wearing them).

Travel pants: ScotteVest Flex Cargo Pants.
ScotteVest outfitted my baggage-free round-the-world journey earlier this year. I didn’t bring the Flex Cargo pants on that journey, but I have a pair I wear at home and on shorter journeys. SeV products are known for pockets, but I like the Flex Cargo pants less for carrying capacity than comfort: It’s like you’re wearing sweats, only the advantage is that you’re not wearing sweats.

Travel bag: GoLite TraveLite convertible bag.
Scott Gilbertson reviewed this bag for us earlier this year, and hit on all its pluses and minuses for vagabonding travel. I don’t know if I’d use it overseas for the long-term, but it’s great for one-bag journeys in the U.S. — and in fact I’d reckon you’re carrying too much if you can’t fit everything into its space-maximizing, overhead-bin-sized dimensions.

A flower vending machine in Takayama, Japan. Photo: Kat Klay / Flickr Creative Commons

With Black Friday upon us, shoppers are lining up in force to take advantage of discounts. What do you buy for a traveler, though?

The New York Times came out with a shopping guide called, Holiday Gifts for a Globetrotter.  The writer made a good point of emphasizing that travelers can be picky, because we’re trying to lighten our baggage, not add to it.

One key attribute travelers love is anything that has multiple uses. I’ve heard many female backpackers wax poetic about the wonderful sarong.  It can be used as a dress, a skirt, a scarf, a blanket, a pillow, the list is endless.  Here is one ode to that wonderful garment: The Many Uses of the Simple Sarong.

As a bit of a gadget geek, I love having a phone I can use internationally. In China, I picked up an unlocked GSM dual-band phone that worked almost everywhere in Asia.  The one exception was Japan, which uses a different network.

Having a phone to make local calls was a huge convenience. Easier to get in touch with friends, I could reserve ahead my accommodation at guesthouses that didn’t offer online booking, and call a guesthouse if I got lost (which happened often).

My World Phone is one outfit that sells unlocked phones.  I’d say go for quadband phones, since they will work in the most countries. Most phones like this use prepaid cards, not monthly plans. So you’re not paying for it if you’re not using it.  If you have a friend who goes abroad all the time or planning a round-the-world trip, a global phone might be the perfect gift.

What have you given or gotten for travel gifts in the past?  Please share your suggestions in the comments.

Claire Litton wrote earlier this week about traveling low-res as a genuine option to lugging all those i-products around. The timing was right on the heels of my recent digital breakdown.

I probably should have known better than to plan to do a few social media updates and minor editing tasks while I was spending a long weekend in St. Kitts. My cellular carrier assured me that I’d be able to get service on the island, and I brought along my iPad so I could take advantage of the Wi-Fi in the common areas of my hotel. It’s not like I planned to spend a lot of time online. With all that availability, I’d just be able to connect when I wanted to.

What happened? No cellular service. (It turns out that I could have changed that by manually reprogramming my phone, but I had no idea. Lesson learned.) And the reliable Wi-Fi in the hotel? Not reliable. I spent the first 24 hours worried that I’d miss something. But then, I calmed down and realized that it wasn’t the biggest deal and others would understand.

I’m not proud that I’ve allowed technology to get the better of me. But it’s taught me a lesson: Plug in only when it’s essential and it means a paycheck that you can’t do without. Even then, if you can plan in advance to avoid it, do so. Technology may be convenient, but real relaxation doesn’t need a thing.

For extended travels your pack is your single most important piece of gear (unless of course you opt to go minimalist and skip the bag altogether). If you’re good at packing light, but want some extra protection for your laptop and other electronic gizmos, Keen’s Airport Way backpack makes a great choice.

The bag is slightly larger than your average school backpack and features a well padded, TSA-compliant laptop compartment that will hold anything from a netbook or iPad to a 17-inch notebook. There’s also room for a power brick and any other accessories you’d like to carry — DVDs for making backups of your photos, an external hard drive or what have you.

The laptop compartment is also under the shoulder straps making it somewhat more secure than just shoving your valuables in a back pocket that anyone can sneak their way into while you’re admiring the sights.

The TSA-compliance means you don’t need to pull out your laptop in airport security (at least in the U.S.), instead you just unzip the compartment and lay it flat on the x-ray machine.

The exterior of the Airport Way is made of a water resistant polyester, which, while it won’t stand up to a full soaking, should keep your things dry in all but the heaviest of downpours.

At 1526 cubic inches, the Airport Way is on the small side for long trips, but I was able to fit everything I’d bring on an extended trip without too much trouble. If the pack has a downside it’s that there is no large, central compartment. Instead there are two smaller compartments with over a dozen sub-pockets and organizer sleeves. While it makes separating your stuff a breeze, the Airport Way would be more suited to long term travel if it were simplified a bit.

Still, the should straps are well padded and even when fully loaded the pack felt comfortable on my back. The back also has some nice padding and sits flat and comfortably against your back, especially if you have a laptop in the laptop compartment. The “airmesh” back panel has channels that allow air to circulate between your back and the pack, keeping you cool. The channels help a little, but I took it on a longer hike and still ended up with a sweaty back.

The laptop compartment unzipped and ready for airport security

Mesh padding and air channels help keep you cool, to a point

My main gripe about the Airport Way is the lack of external straps. A couple of extra straps on the sides would let you compress the pack and make it more stable when it’s not full and also give you and place to store dirty sandals, wet bathing suits and other gear you don’t want on the inside.

However, despite a couple of small drawbacks the Airport Way is a great pack — especially for those looking for secure, padded way to cart around their laptops or for those that love packs with tons of organizational pockets.

At $130 the Airport Way isn’t the cheapest bag out there, but it’s well made, comfortable and worth the money if you have some to spare.